Punched up lectures: hands on with the new iTunes U app for iOS

Ars goes hands on with the iPad version of Apple's new iTunes U app. Although …

During Thursday's media event in New York City, Apple spent most of its time talking about the new iBooks 2 and iBooks Author, which the company hopes will "revolutionize textbooks." But tacked onto the end of the announcement was another interesting tidbit: the new iTunes U app for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch.

Geared towards university students—and even just casual students on the Internet—the iTunes U app takes advantage of Apple's already-existing iTunes U content and presents it to college and university students in a more usable way, allowing instructors to send full syllabus information, assignments, and even notes from the professor directly to students' devices. Students can subscribe to certain classes—if that feature is available, that is—and automatically download relevant course material, not to mention links to outside apps or PDFs.

Because some of us at Ars have already dabbled in listening to iTunes U lectures in the past, we were interested in checking out the new app, as well as the new features offered from some universities. And although many course offerings available through iTunes U are still in the "old" audio-only format, what we did find was still a huge step up for higher education learning on the iPad.

Starting with a mixture of old and new

When you open the app, there is understandably no content there waiting for you, but Apple provides a way to browse the entire iTunes U catalog from within the app (instead of requiring you to download content through iTunes and sync it, which was the previous method of doing things). The iTunes U catalog is set up in a very App Store-like way, and you can search by university, topic, or keyword. As we mentioned above, many of the offerings available right now are still in the old fashioned format—that is, audio-only lectures—but even those are easier to use now through the app.

Once you download a few lectures that interest you, you can go back to your main "Library" to check out what you have. When you load up that particular lecture series, the app will tell you if there are other lectures in the series that you have yet to download, signified by a square button with an arrow. When you tap that button, the app will download that lecture and make it available to you in the listing.

You can choose whether you want to treat your iTunes U learning as a one-off experience or an ongoing activity; the gear button in the top right corner allows you to turn on subscriptions if they're available, and you can even set it to automatically download any new lessons that pop up.

The true new hotness

But that's just getting started. There aren't many, but some universities already have more fleshed out iTunes U content available in the catalog that only works with the iTunes U app. Stanford University's iPad and iPhone app development course is one of them—the catalog allows you to subscribe to the entire class for free, and once you do so, the available options show up in your library for you to peruse.

As you can see, most of the lessons here have a video that you can watch within the app as well as lecture slides. Some of them have assignments attached (look under Lecture 2). Some lessons might have even more materials available for you to download; look above under Lecture 5, where there's a link to "Download Happiness.zip to your Mac."

These are all found within the "Posts" tab on the right hand side. When you tap over to the "Materials" tab at the bottom, you can find even more course materials, such as useful Web links, links to relevant iOS apps that you may want to download, and so on.

I haven't yet made any notes on any of my materials (as of this writing, the catalog was moving very slowly and it was difficult to download materials), but if I had, they would appear in the "Notes" tab on the right. All of your notes from various lectures will appear in one place here, making it easy to find them again and use them for future reference.

Where was this when I was in school?

All of Apple's announcements on Thursday made me jealous of the resources that young people have available to them these days—not just from Apple, but from the Internet and technology in general. I can particularly relate to the plight of the college student who did have access to the Internet and some course materials online, but never organized in one easy-to-use place like what's available through the iTunes U app. My university life would have been much smoother and less disorganized if I had a tool like this and my professors had made use of the expanded feature set of the new iTunes U.

But even though I'm no longer a student—at least not right now!—that doesn't mean I can't make use of the app and the available course offerings. Everyone, whether they're a student or not, can download course materials through iTunes U and take a free at-home lecture on a huge variety of subjects, sometimes from the world's leading universities. While the concept of iTunes U has been around for years, Apple has finally decided to make it into something more than a glorified university podcast with the launch of this app, and we really like what we see.

So, have you found any interesting courses that Ars readers should check out? Let us know in the comments.

I'd been wondering why Apple wasn't highlighting the iTune-U content better in the App store. It's nice to see that they hadn't forgotten about it.

This has great potential for students of all ages. I'm hoping it really blossoms into a viable alternative to traditional teaching materials (ridiculously expensive textbooks, etc.)

Apple deserves some praise for putting some real effort into this and making it an appealing package. I hope they reap meaningful rewards from it, but I also hope it becomes available and useful outside of their "ecosystem" sometime so that more people have access to it.

The next step needs to be how to take material we put into iBook format into formats that can be read by Android and Windows tablets. Because education needs to cover all the bases. We have students in China, India and a lot of other places where iOS devices are too expensive, or too scarce. They deserve the same interactivity as the iPad users for the sake of accreditation and compliance. Apple needs to get on the stick.

The next step needs to be how to take material we put into iBook format into formats that can be read by Android and Windows tablets. Because education needs to cover all the bases. We have students in China, India and a lot of other places where iOS devices are too expensive, or too scarce. They deserve the same interactivity as the iPad users for the sake of accreditation and compliance. AppleMicrosoft and Google needs to get on the stick.

Fixed that for you. (Why does/should Apple need to support competing devices?)

The next step needs to be how to take material we put into iBook format into formats that can be read by Android and Windows tablets. Because education needs to cover all the bases. We have students in China, India and a lot of other places where iOS devices are too expensive, or too scarce. They deserve the same interactivity as the iPad users for the sake of accreditation and compliance. Apple needs to get on the stick.

I'll put the over/under on that around a geological epoch or two after hell freezes over.

The next step needs to be how to take material we put into iBook format into formats that can be read by Android and Windows tablets. Because education needs to cover all the bases. We have students in China, India and a lot of other places where iOS devices are too expensive, or too scarce. They deserve the same interactivity as the iPad users for the sake of accreditation and compliance. Apple needs to get on the stick.

How about other companies release the resources for their own operating systems, and authors choose how and where to publish for themselves?

Apple shouldn't go around making it attractive to buy competing products. If Google and Microsoft don't deliver something similarly worthwhile, take them to task for their own failure.

The next step needs to be how to take material we put into iBook format into formats that can be read by Android and Windows tablets. Because education needs to cover all the bases. We have students in China, India and a lot of other places where iOS devices are too expensive, or too scarce. They deserve the same interactivity as the iPad users for the sake of accreditation and compliance. AppleMicrosoft and Google needs to get on the stick.

Fixed that for you. (Why does/should Apple need to support competing devices?)

How about Apple makes the format available for all then? Or do you think it's better to have lock-in and require publishers and teachers to redo all their work in multiple formats and different programs? This would get the same thumbs down for being closed regardless of which company put it out. Apple doesn't have to do the work of making other platforms able to use this, but if they try to pull a Microsoft with regards to file formats...

I am still wondering if it isn't possible to invent a pen with a static point which can draw on e-ink? I really like e-ink but for learning it is really important to underline, highlight, draw and make notes... Surely if I put a negative or positive charge on the screen the little ink balls will flip?

How about Apple makes the format available for all then? Or do you think it's better to have lock-in and require publishers and teachers to redo all their work in multiple formats and different programs? This would get the same thumbs down for being closed regardless of which company put it out. Apple doesn't have to do the work of making other platforms able to use this, but if they try to pull a Microsoft with regards to file formats...

Since the format seems to be a variation on ePub, it should be quite possible for anyone willing to make their work freely available to do so.

Since, obviously, all of the content creators, including Apple, should have the best interests of the users of all platforms as their only goal, this should be no problem.

If content creators want to sell their work, then Apple is under no obligation to help them do so on competing platforms, any more than Apple needs to make their iOS developer tools available for Android.

I don't know much about the mac world. Could you run this ITunes U on a desktop of some sort, or is there a desktop version?

I suspect since the old iTunes U was in iTunes program on window and OSX it will stay there. My old iTunes U stuff still shows up there. I will need to look at the the newer stuff and see if is still there with the new features.

How about Apple makes the format available for all then? Or do you think it's better to have lock-in and require publishers and teachers to redo all their work in multiple formats and different programs? This would get the same thumbs down for being closed regardless of which company put it out. Apple doesn't have to do the work of making other platforms able to use this, but if they try to pull a Microsoft with regards to file formats...

Since the format seems to be a variation on ePub, it should be quite possible for anyone willing to make their work freely available to do so.

Since, obviously, all of the content creators, including Apple, should have the best interests of the users of all platforms as their only goal, this should be no problem.

If content creators want to sell their work, then Apple is under no obligation to help them do so on competing platforms, any more than Apple needs to make their iOS developer tools available for Android.

So hackers are going to have to reverse engineer another incompatible extension of an open standard to get it to work? Apple called it revolutionary: a multimedia book for iOS devices only isn't revolutionary for the educational market. Sometimes it's better long term to generate good will by creating something that everyone benefits from, not just your own company. You can even profit more that way, if you play it right.

So hackers are going to have to reverse engineer another incompatible extension of an open standard to get it to work? Apple called it revolutionary: a multimedia book for iOS devices only isn't revolutionary for the educational market. Sometimes it's better long term to generate good will by creating something that everyone benefits from, not just your own company. You can even profit more that way, if you play it right.

I would be interested in seeing your business model.

My suspicion is that people will benefit as it is. Some will benefit in that the tools are available for free on OS X, and will run on the most popular tablet OS. Some will benefit from the shakeup of the publishing industry. And some will benefit from the release of free content to the world.

If changing the educational market were easy, why did we have to wait for this announcement? Apple is a for-profit company, doing something that probably took considerable resources, and that they think will make them money. As a for-profit company, making money is their job.

So hackers are going to have to reverse engineer another incompatible extension of an open standard to get it to work? Apple called it revolutionary: a multimedia book for iOS devices only isn't revolutionary for the educational market. Sometimes it's better long term to generate good will by creating something that everyone benefits from, not just your own company. You can even profit more that way, if you play it right.

I would be interested in seeing your business model.

My suspicion is that people will benefit as it is. Some will benefit in that the tools are available for free on OS X, and will run on the most popular tablet OS. Some will benefit from the shakeup of the publishing industry. And some will benefit from the release of free content to the world.

If changing the educational market were easy, why did we have to wait for this announcement? Apple is a for-profit company, doing something that probably took considerable resources, and that they think will make them money. As a for-profit company, making money is their job.

You can look at Kindle for one, with the reader available on many platforms. That gives people comfort that they can read their DRM-ed ebooks anywhere, which definitely sets the mind and pocketbook at ease.

Of course the educational market isn't easy to change. That's what's so disappointing about this announcement. If anyone can somehow shake things up, it'll be a company that people fawn over like Apple, but if they don't even announce plans to make it available for others to support, EVEN if they have to buy the books through Apple, there is going to be a lot of friction from people rightly concerned about lock-in and limited usefulness. Changing the behemoth isn't going to be easy; giving nay-sayers more ammunition isn't a good idea. They got iTunes to work on Windows (barely), after all, because there were a lot of Windows users that wanted iPods. And that probably led to more Mac sales as well.

I was wanting the ebook for school from before there was an internet outside a few universities, much less a Star Trek tablet, but Apple's not very convincing with this offering, at least what little was shown and described in the presentation and articles here.

It only takes one lecture to learn "a foundation for programming in Objective-C"?

Man, I am slllllllowwww in comparison to the modern college undergrad.

The flesh-and-blood version of the class expects that students already have a solid CS background, as the course requires Stanford CS 106 series. As a TA for the two classes (two quarter sequence), I can tell you that 106A/B is NOT easy unless you already have some CS experience. They also recommend CS 107, which many (most?) CS majors find is the hardest class they take at Stanford.

So, you're not slow They're expecting that students will know OOP concepts and they're just introducing some of ObjC's idiosyncrasies (the whole concept of a "message", for instance).

You can look at Kindle for one, with the reader available on many platforms. That gives people comfort that they can read their DRM-ed ebooks anywhere, which definitely sets the mind and pocketbook at ease.

Seriously? You think that Apple, a hardware company, should emulate Amazon's business model for the Kindle of selling its hardware for a loss so that it can sell books? I don't think that works.

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Of course the educational market isn't easy to change. That's what's so disappointing about this announcement. If anyone can somehow shake things up, it'll be a company that people fawn over like Apple (snipped)

I see. I suspect that nothing Apple did was going to be satisfactory to you. iTunes U is free, and runs on multiple platforms. This initiative is new, has been out for less than one day, and no one knows where it will go, but already you have enough information to judge it insufficient. I bow to your superior understanding of the educational world.

You can look at Kindle for one, with the reader available on many platforms. That gives people comfort that they can read their DRM-ed ebooks anywhere, which definitely sets the mind and pocketbook at ease.

Seriously? You think that Apple, a hardware company, should emulate Amazon's business model for the Kindle of selling its hardware for a loss so that it can sell books? I don't think that works.

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Of course the educational market isn't easy to change. That's what's so disappointing about this announcement. If anyone can somehow shake things up, it'll be a company that people fawn over like Apple (snipped)

I see. I suspect that nothing Apple did was going to be satisfactory to you. iTunes U is free, and runs on multiple platforms. This initiative is new, has been out for less than one day, and no one knows where it will go, but already you have enough information to judge it insufficient. I bow to your superior understanding of the educational world.

First off, Amazon sells the books for a loss, not the hardware. Or at least they did until Apple started price fixing them. Second, all content to iBook 2 will be exclusive. So much for an semblance of openness.

I am not the biggest fan of Apple and hate Itunes with a passion yet the only reason I keep it is Itunes U. I wish this avabile on the PC or Kindle Fire but I know that is not going to happen but still awesome. Its such a great resource for supplemantal education or just learning about something in general. Just do not make this the primary form of education going foward.

You can look at Kindle for one, with the reader available on many platforms. That gives people comfort that they can read their DRM-ed ebooks anywhere, which definitely sets the mind and pocketbook at ease.

Seriously? You think that Apple, a hardware company, should emulate Amazon's business model for the Kindle of selling its hardware for a loss so that it can sell books? I don't think that works.

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Of course the educational market isn't easy to change. That's what's so disappointing about this announcement. If anyone can somehow shake things up, it'll be a company that people fawn over like Apple (snipped)

I see. I suspect that nothing Apple did was going to be satisfactory to you. iTunes U is free, and runs on multiple platforms. This initiative is new, has been out for less than one day, and no one knows where it will go, but already you have enough information to judge it insufficient. I bow to your superior understanding of the educational world.

Seriously, you can't think ahead? All Apple would have to do is support their new format as open - all the sales could still go through their store, the most up to date experience would be through their hardware, and they would have the goodwill from not acting like selfish jerks yet again.

I'm pretty critical of anything that claims to be revolutionary and turns out to be the same old marketing. Where it MIGHT go is completely irrelevant for evaluating what was announced. They haven't even announced plans for expanding it to Macs. That said, Apple could pull something useful out of this because of their clout. When I say people fawn over Apple, it's simple truth, not to say they have nothing to offer. Look at the rumor mill that surrounds them. They have the attention of the media - that means they can push things that small companies may have already tried and make it huge. In other words, they can use their power to create a real good, a real educational shakeup. Multimedia ebooks really isn't, but it might be a start. The coursework integration might be. I would be just as critical if MS had made the same announcement for Windows 8 tablets only. Google would be less likely to try this because in many ways they are more like Amazon: they want their software everywhere.

IBooks Author resolves one of the impediments to distance learning: the need for paper documents and notes to supplement the audio or audio-visual courses. Profs will likely produce a flood of sophisticated digital "booklets" to supplement courses. Actual keystone educational texts will come later, but change will have been initiated.

If iBooks Author becomes a predominant tool for creation of advanced new educational e-docs, the tools that are less predominant will develop conversion capability. Microsoft Office did not provide conversion tools to iWork or Open or Libre Office: it was the other way around. If iBooks Author does not predominate in etextbooks, it will do the adapting. But while that issue is in the balance, Apple will likely keep iBooks the exclusive marketer for the products of Author. If it achieves dominance, that will likely have to change.

What's interesting is that if you already have some courses downloaded in the "Video" app (there's a few courses I watch for fun - I miss the classroom!), they will be automatically imported in the app when you launch it the first time.

What's interesting is that if you already have some courses downloaded in the "Video" app ... they will be automatically imported in the app when you launch it the first time.

I was about to mention that. Same goes for audio lectures in the "Music" app/ This implies that you can keep on looking for new courses in ITunes and syncing to the iDevice rather than using the cramped and restricted facilities of the app.

Seriously, you can't think ahead? All Apple would have to do is support their new format as open - all the sales could still go through their store, the most up to date experience would be through their hardware, and they would have the goodwill from not acting like selfish jerks yet again.

As far as I can tell, the format is open. I see no signs of DRM in the output.

So as I see it, you have several options:

1. Do what you were doing before the announcement. You dislike Apple; no one will criticize you for not supporting their hardware.

2. Use iBook Author to generate content, and give it away via any route you choose. Since you think that Apple should be giving away content, you should have no problem with this approach.

3. Use iBook Author to generate content, and sell it through Apple, allowing you to reach the vast majority of the tablet market.

4. Use iBook Author to generate content to sell through Apple, and use something else to generate output for other devices. (Just as the iOS developer tools work for iOS devices, but not for Android, but software ports are completely allowed.)

Once again, Apple is a for-profit company, with a business model dependent on hardware sales. They have little interest in supporting other hardware. (If I were working for Apple, I would be unhappy to have people calling me and asking how to trouble-shoot an Android device, but I have heard that this happens frequently.)

First off, Amazon sells the books for a loss, not the hardware. Or at least they did until Apple started price fixing them. Second, all content to iBook 2 will be exclusive. So much for an semblance of openness.

All of the reports I have seen for the Kindle Fire indicate that it is being sold for a loss. The nice thing about software is that the marginal cost for additional copies is effectively zero, dependent only on the agreement with the content creator. If Amazon is losing money on books, they must be lying in their SEC filings, and/or be well on their way to bankruptcy.

As for content being exclusive; once again, it is only exclusive in that, for output from iBook Author to be legally sold, it must be sold through Apple. The output can be given away freely (which is as open as it gets).

You want to sell eBooks using another venue, use other tools. As far as I can tell, Apple will not care; IANAL, but it looks to me that the EULA is referring to output, not to content, so you would merely have to reformat the content. Apple does not have any interest in expending resources to support other platforms, especially if it does not benefit them, which seems reasonable to me. So, exactly what is the problem?

As far as I can tell, the format is open. I see no signs of DRM in the output.

That is a pretty lousy definition of open. For example, the historical Microsoft Office formats were proprietary but had not active DRM in them. A format that is not openly documented and specified is hard pressed to be classified as open. The new ibook standard seems to be an "embrace and extend" play. That isn't being open. Where is the openly accessible documentation on this book format ?

Go back and look at the license agreement in the reverse engineering section. Apple covers not only the software of iBook Author but the services provided by the software too. Judging from your other posts, I'm sure you are going to produce some kind of tap-dance that outlines how generating a book is not one of the services provided. If Apple wanted to allow other implementers to freely implement book generation that clause wouldn't be there or would provide an except to the format. It doesn't.

Will the format get cracked? Probably (that clause is illegal in some countries ). But so far, Apple has neither openly documented nor proactively allow for to the format to be documented.

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4. Use iBook Author to generate content to sell through Apple, and use something else to generate output for other devices. (Just as the iOS developer tools work for iOS devices, but not for Android, but software ports are completely allowed.)

Chuckle... if it is an open standard and DRM-less why would that be necessary? Currently textbooks are not proprietary. If you buy one from one vendor you don't need to buy it again from another vendor if you switch vendors. If you buy a proprietary iBooks and later decide to move to another platform your suggestion is that the person needs to buy the books all over again. That doesn't sound very open. In fact, it violates one of the common core principles of open licenses and software.

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Once again, Apple is a for-profit company, with a business model dependent on hardware sales. They have little interest in supporting other hardware.

That is not the issue. Apple is free to come up with a proprietary format. However, if they are going to market it as a education savior for everyone then it is particularly lame that they lock it into one platform of their offerings. Apple doesn't even offer an iBooks reader for the Mac. It isn't even a matter of "other vendors", this format is locked into a single set of devices.

Amazon and Barnes & Noble have ebook formats that lock into their ecosystem. However, they allow folks to pick the devices they read on. Apple is selling these books (taking 30%). They are making money.

If iBooks were a strict EPUB3 format this would be an issue. Like how the audio files from the iTunes store are playable on any device. Apple sells them and then you get to choose which device to play them on.

Caillebotte: You might be right, but I don't think they differentiate between output and content. From what I read, content will be exclusive to iBook 2. That means that authors won't even be able to give it away outside of iBook. But even if they could, is that really likely? I write a book and sell it on iBooks but can only give it away everywhere else?

All of the reports I have seen for the Kindle Fire indicate that it is being sold for a loss.

None of those reports are likely from anyone who actually makes the Fire. More likely the Fire is being sold at cost ( or what the "at cost" will be once the production reaches stability. )

Amazon is making the Fire more affordable so the customer has more money to buy more content and items from Amazon. Apple is making textbooks more affordable so customers buy more expensive iPads. (e.g, with some books coming in at 2GB in size it won't take too many classes to max a 16GB iPad and conjole folks into moving to bigger device. There are far more than just pedagogical reasons why Apple is trumpeting porking out books on size. ). Reducing the cost of complements.

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If Amazon is losing money on books, they must be lying in their SEC filings, and/or be well on their way to bankruptcy.

Amazon was not loosing money on all books. Just the best sellers. Those costs were offset by profits on other items. You can walk into just about any retail store and see the same thing going on. Items on deep sale to get buyers into the store and then present them with other items not on sale to offset the potential loss.

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The output can be given away freely (which is as open as it gets).

Free (as in beer) is not open. If Coca-Cola hands you a free bottle of Coke in a promotional gesture that does *not* make the Coke forumla open or free (as in speech). I'm not sure where you are getting notion of "open" from but it is twisted and flawed.

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You want to sell eBooks using another venue, use other tools. As far as I can tell, Apple will not care; IANAL, but it looks to me that the EULA is referring to output, not to content, so you would merely have to reformat the content.

Open ... but need a proprietary generator for the content.

Given Apple is increasing an patent troll, that is a slippery slope to get on. If you try to make your book look the same on multiple platforms Apple may come and sue you. Right now Apple may not care as long as they are reaping the most money, but if they start loosing a dominant position, the lawyers will roll out and they have plenty of money to bury folks in court costs.

As licensed now the author program is a bit like the GPL. Co-mingling your content with its content means some amount of lock-in and leverage to other party.

Caillebotte: You might be right, but I don't think they differentiate between output and content. From what I read, content will be exclusive to iBook 2.

No. You can export in PDF and other actually open formats. However, your rights will have been locked up because you used that particular program to generate the output. It is exactly as if Microsoft told the users of Word that if they write a book and want to sell it they would have to sell it through the Microsoft store. It doesn't matter if do a "save as" into text format. Because you have used the program to generate, you get lock-in.

The hand waving part here is that you create content in other programs. Then only import largely finished product into iBook Author as a final (or close to final) step in the workflow. So to label the program as "Author" is bit of a stretch. No one should actually do the work of an author in the program. Layout management perhaps, but authoring no (unless resigned to lock-in on getting paid for your work.)

No. You can export in PDF and other actually open formats. However, your rights will have been locked up because you used that particular program to generate the output.

Only it you want to sell the output. And then only if you wish to sell via venues other than Apple. And, according to most analysis, only the output directly generated in the software.

I somehow seem to be missing the source of the sense of entitlement exhibited by the critics of iBook Author.

If you do not like the restrictions, no one is forcing you to use the software. (Although good luck finding a market for tablet software other than the iPad.) There are other software packages that will generate content distributable via the iBook store, and via other venues. Apparently, the other software packages are not as well thought out as iBook Author.

If you are interested in education, why not release the content freely, in which case you can distribute anywhere?

I think that the real problem some critics have is that Apple has (once again) done something significant, and that the "Apple does not innovate" criticism cannot be applied. For others, the problem may be that Apple is limiting the textbook prices to $15! Horrors! And therefore people who wish to not sound greedy, have to try to apply the "greedy" tag to Apple. (An interesting psychological issue.)